Education, education and education

Tony Blair's "Education, education and education" mantra was an electoral slogan and ever-'improving' exam results under the last Labour government were designed to show that Labour had 'invested' wisely and cared for the nation's children. Anyone who dared to say that standards were falling was accused of not caring about the hard work put in by pupils and teachers and of generally being a


So it was with interest that I read the BBC's report on the OECD's latest educational standards report. The BBC manage to include this comment:

'Shadow education secretary Andy Burnham said: "Schools improved under Labour, and more students now leave with good results. People forget how bad things were: in 1997, half of all schools failed to reach the basic benchmark of 30% of students getting 5 GCSEs graded A*-C, including English and maths - that number is now fewer than one in 12."'

Schools did not improve under Labour, results improved because exams were deliberately made easier.

For a more realistic view of education in the UK in the light of the OECD report, I suggest a read of Toby Young's Telegraph article that includes this:

'British schoolchildren are now ranked 16th in the world for science, 25th for reading and 28th for maths, according to the OECD’s 2009 PISA report. That compares with a 2000 PISA ranking of 4th for science, 7th for reading and 8th for maths. This is conclusive proof that Labour’s claim to have “improved” Britain’s schools during its period in office is utter nonsense. Spending on education increased by £30 billion under the last government, yet between 2000-09 British schoolchildren plummeted in the international league tables and are now ranked behind those of Poland, Estonia and Slovenia.

Labour apologists will respond in two ways to this report. The most simple-minded of them will simply ignore it and continue to point to GCSE results as evidence of school “improvement”. Not surprisingly, this is the response of Andy Burnham, Labour’s virtually invisible shadow education secretary. “Schools improved under Labour, and more students now leave with good results,” he told the BBC’s website. While the second half of that statement is true, if we combine it with the 2009 PISA report it is proof – if proof were needed – that GCSEs have been dumbed down. What Labour did over the past 13 years was to collude with the exam boards to keep lowering the bar in a desperate attempt to demonstrate that Britain’s schools were getting better.'

I wonder if the BBC will question Andy Burnham's assertions? I think we all know the answer to that question.

There is one other point that needs discussing and that is if the large and increasing number of pupils in British schools whose first language is not English might be affecting educational standards? It's a fair and relevant question but not one that I envisage being asked on the BBC in the near future.